Mercy
by the-purple-black
Summary: It is the night before Hermione Granger leaves her family, ready to fight the war against the Death Eaters and Lord Voldemort alongside her friends. Though as she tries to ensure that everything is prepared a surprise visitor quickly turns her plans into chaos.


**So, this is something that I haven't really done before. I've never really experimented with Hermione as a central character in anything and thought I'd give it a shot with one of my favourite people alongside her. Little nervous to even upload this to be honest but hey!**

**As always, please read, enjoy and please do leave a review and let me know your thoughts **

**The Purple Black**

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The sunlight was slowly disappearing down over the small muggle street in Heathgate. Children were being called into their homes for the evening after a day of playing out in the hot summer's day, birdsong could be heard in the distance as the town's muggle inhabitants cooled off in front of their television sets for the evening and all was seemingly peaceful. Though the outside world was ignored by the one magical inhabitant of the street, as the young witch paced around her bedroom with unease.

Hermione Granger had not stopped all day, locked in her bedroom as she prepared for what she already knew would be perhaps one of the hardest tasks of her life to date her parents did not understand her need to be left to her own devices as they worried over her. They knew, of course, of what was happening in the wizarding world. They knew all about their witch daughters life, of Hogwarts and magic, of her closest friends and all of the adventures she had been on throughout the years and they listened to all of her stories with close attention and due interest, even if they could not even begin to comprehend half of the things their daughter told them. They had seen magic, they had been within the wizarding world—something very few muggles ever had the chance to experience—they had seen the papers delivered through their daughter's bedroom window during the holidays, seen the mentions of "He Who Must Not Be Named" and asked questions as their natural concern for their daughter arose. And Hermione had told them. She had told them of her friend, Harry Potter, told them of The Death Eaters, Lord Voldemort, her plans to help her friend against the threat to the Wizarding world and, despite their concern, they had understood that their strong-willed, brave and intelligent daughter could not be stopped in her plight to help save her magical world. Though that was the problem. She had told them everything.

Mr and Mrs Granger, two otherwise normal and perfectly respectable muggle dentists, knew the magical world, it's current threat and the plan to fight it far more than anyone ever should, let alone two muggles. Hermione could not defend them, she could not stay and protect them as she tried to carry out her task. She had spent weeks, months even, trying to think of how to protect them. She had considered wards at first, defending their home to the best of her capabilities, even writing to Order members such as the Auror Tonks in hopes of finding some magic that could defend her parents in her absence. Though no matter where she looked for help, be it in books or the knowledge of her peers, she could not find a way to protect them. Wards could be broken, muggles could be so easily traced, her parents could be taken—or worse killed—in order to obtain information or try to lure Hermione out to save them, because the Death Eaters knew if she had to come to save them she would and she knew her friends would not let her go alone, just as well as they did. She had decided that in the end there was only one solution. She needed them gone and not only did she need them gone she needed to ensure that they knew nothing. That they could not be found, that they would not look for her, that they would not worry about their daughter as they knew of the tasks set before her and they could not have such secrets pried from their mind. They needed to forget her.

Hermione took a deep breath as she moved away from the window, turning as she stared for a moment at the small beaded bag sat in the middle of the pale blue blanket on her bed, trying not to think of the plans she would put in place tomorrow.

"Hermione?"

The girl snapped herself from her thoughts at the sound of her mother's voice softly calling her name from the other side of her door.

"I'm okay . . ." Hermione said, her voice calm and steady not betraying her in the clear lie she spoke.

A pause came, then the handle slowly turned before the door slowly opened as if her mother was scared of intruding on her. When no protest came Mrs Granger stepped into her room, smiling sadly at her only child.

"You're a terrible liar," Mrs Granger sighed.

"Honestly," Hermione shook her head, forcing a smile, "I'm fine. I've just been busy, reading up on things and going over some spells."

"Okay," Mrs Granger nodded, not wanting to push her daughter further, "well, dinner is on the table. I could bring it up if you'd like . . . it would be nice to see you though."

Hermione hesitated for a moment, looking towards the window and the fading sun once last time before with a forced smile and a nod she looked back to her mother, "Sure," she said, noting the genuine smile on her mother's face as she walked away from her window, away from her room, away from the already watching danger outside her home unknown to the trio within.

She sat straight in the wooden chair around her family dining table, one hand rested on the wand concealed in the pocket of her cardigan as she moved a baby carrot around her plate distractedly with the fork in her other hand. They ate their meal in relative silence as all three at the table could feel the weight of the uncertain future sitting upon them.

"Little Sarah tried to bite my hand again today," Mr Granger said, trying to break the silence, "ripped a hole in my glove."

"The Andrew's girl?" Mrs Granger asked, overly keen to discuss anything to try to change the mood, "That's not the first time she's done that, is it?"

"No," Mr Granger agreed, taking a sip of his drink as his eyes flickered to his daughter, "you'd think she'd have grown out of it by now, she's nearing ten."

"Well," Mrs Granger sighed, "not everyone likes the dentist, do they . . ."

Mr Granger hummed in agreement, sharing a glance with his wife after a few moment's silence before with a sigh he looked to his daughter, determined to address the elephant in the room "It will be okay, Hermione. You're a smart girl, a great witch, top of your class." he swallowed, as if trying to push back his own fears as he merely hoped the best for his daughter.

"I'm not sure Death Eaters care about my grades, Dad," Hermione couldn't help but laugh slightly, though as she looked up to the poorly concealed worry clearly painted on her parents faces she sighed and gave as best a reassuring smile as she could, "It'll be okay. I won't be alone. Before you know it I'll be back home and all of this will be a distant memory."

Her mother returned her smile, reaching her hand out across the dinner table and taking her daughter's in her own, "We believe in you, Hermione . . . though I can't say I'm happy about the entire situation . . . You're a strong girl—you're _our _girl—and we know you'll do everything you can to make sure you help your friends and come home to us after."

Hermione squeezed her mother's hand, biting the inside of her lip slightly as she tried to fight back the tears she could feel already threatening to well within her eyes.

"Mum, Dad, I—"

Hermione caught herself mid-sentence, both of her parents jumping in fright at the sudden shock. The scream of her carefully placed caterwauling charm tore through every nerve in her body as its screech filled the air.

Mr Granger covered his ears, his eyes widening as he watched his daughter draw her wand and stand to attention "What the—!?"

"When did we get a burglar alarm!?" Mrs Granger cried.

But Hermione was not paying attention. She ran to the front room, almost colliding with the window as she tried to see the intruder but was only greeted by the slightly confused glance of a dog walker across the street. She ignored the man, running instead to the back of the house but as the charm was suddenly disabled, leaving her only with the after effect of slight ringing in her ears, her blood ran cold as she knew only a magical intruder could have done such a thing.

"Hide!" Hermione yelled in the direction of her parents as she ran to the back of the house to look out into the garden.

It was as if she had been frozen to the spot as a chill ran down her spine. There, stood at the end of the garden she had played in as a child, before she knew of magic and both the wonders and dangers that came with it, stood a lone figure. Their wand was held loosely in their hand, turning the wood casually between their fingers, they stood tall, unmoving as if they were waiting for some sort of horrific show to begin, a cold smirk graced her lips as she stared directly at the younger witch through her heavy-lidded eyes. She knew the moment that she saw Bellatrix Lestrange, stood at the bottom of her garden so casually, that there was no use in her parents trying to hide, she would find them.

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**So I hope you enjoyed the story so far! I think this is going to be a 2-3 chapter story so please let me know what you think! **

**The Purple Black**


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